[vox_mundi]

Steve Howard, Ikea Exec, Says The World Has Hit 'Peak Stuff'

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he world has hit peak home furnishings, according to an Ikea executive.

But the world’s largest furniture retailer remains adamant it’s part of the solution, rather than the problem.

Steve Howard, head of sustainability with the Swedish company, told audience members at a Guardian Live event in London last week that mass consumption has been the culprit behind other “peak” crises in past decades.

“If we look at a global basis, in the West we probably hit peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings,” Howard said, joking, “It doesn’t sound quite so threatening.”
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]“We will be increasingly building a circular Ikea where you can repair and recycle products,”

[Shaved Monkey]

I imagine their repair and recycling platform will be based on the razor blade industry.
Create a good cheap handle that only fits your blades and then keep selling expensive razor blades that constantly go blunt.

[claman]

The world has not reach peak home furnishing. The world has reached peak tolerance with furnitures that are ready for the scrab yard after only 10-20 years of use.
I my self and friends are more and more byuing used quality furnitures that seem to last at least 10 times longer than IKEA-stuff. And amazingly they cost only a fraction of new comparable furnitures.

[onlooker]

Definitely this is the century of peak everything, and downward descent and attrition of everything. I recommend this book by the sage author Richard Heinberg. "Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines
(2007)

[Rod_Cloutier]

My wife and I are downsizing from a large house, to a smaller townhouse. In the process a lot of stuff has to go, including old furniture.

My dad in the 70's built some furniture for my grandparents as a x-mas present. After they died in the 80's it was passed around, eventually making it's way to me. This furniture was sitting covered in dust in my basement, and having no use for it, as hard as it was to part with, we gave the furniture to the Salvation army thrift store; some young couple somewhere will get the stuff.

I'm also giving away two other large bookshelves and a couch as part of downsizing to something smaller and more affordable. I could see this as being a developing trend. As people can't afford larger homes, they will downsize, both donating old furniture and needing less stuff for smaller homes.

When I think of the tiny houses people used to live in when I was a kid, compared to the giant McMansions that suburbanites everywhere seem to like, this change is apparent. If this trend was to reverse, and due to declining energy and less money, suddenly it becomes the trend back to smaller housing, less stuff would be needed to fill them.

[ennui2]

IMHO, those McMansions will probably not get razed but will turn into multi-flamily housing. I know people would like to see the suburbs turned back into relocalized pasture. I just don't see it happening, though.

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', 'I')MHO, those McMansions will probably not get razed but will turn into multi-flamily housing. I know people would like to see the suburbs turned back into relocalized pasture. I just don't see it happening, though.

[ennui2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', 'I')MHO, those McMansions will probably not get razed but will turn into multi-flamily housing. I know people would like to see the suburbs turned back into relocalized pasture. I just don't see it happening, though.

[onlooker]

Yeah and I also apologize Ennui, I do feel I can get carried away with doomer headlines.

[ennui2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Besides, ennui is a troll.

[Shaved Monkey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', '
')Yes I think we are much more on the track of laboratory/factory produced artificial food. Land is needed for people to live especially those fleeing the coastline. Soylent green anyone?